Connected
by chan-sol
Summary: Just a short oneshot on Melanie and Sam, it might turn into a series of oneshots. Please read and review, thanks!
1. Chapter 1

**Hi, so I'm taking a small break from my other fanfic. This one is about Melanie and Sam. It might become a series of oneshots, but that depends on how many reviews i get. If you like this one, please consider reading my other story Jack and Jill fall, which is a Seddie tale based around classic children's fairytales. Thanks for reading and please review!**

Rage. Angry, fury:violent anger. It's more then that.

As all are aware, Samantha Puckett is a cyclone of anger. To put it bluntly. She insults, and disrespects, and physically produces pain.

Most people say it's because she's hurting herself. They say that her inability to show any other emotion is because she's scared. And that the only reason she's tough is because underneath is really a weak person.

I disagree. Sam is strong. I'm not saying it in a physical or even emotional way. Strength, is as natural to Sam as...breathing. She was not created any other way.

I guess, you could say I was hit in the face with this inevitable power. Because, I literally was. And once hit, it's hard to describe strength in any other way, then a mass of personality. Every inch of personality. The humor, opinions, the things that surprise you, and the ones that are simply predictable. Of course i felt her fury, that came first, but I also felt her desperation. Do you want to know why she was so desperate? I'll tell you.

Samantha and Melanie were the two blonde headed offspring to a young woman by the name of Pam. Their father, at the time, was a happily married dentist with his own firm and car. Surprisingly enough, they were two freshly picked apples in the foresight of each parent.

Sam was, as always, the firecracker. She yelled most of the night, resisted nap time, and basically left invisible footprints on the hardwood flooring of their home. She was most likely the most annoying child to ever be nursed. Nothing would, even temporarily, thwart her constant outbursts of ecstasy or annoyance.

While Melanie, was the shy, reserved girl. She was a dream to take care of. Slept soundly, obliged to rules, and stayed respectable. However, she was also a hopeless melodramatic person. She chased after the feeling of pure passion, whether it be anger or love. Which is probably why, she marveled at Sam's eruptions.

They were the essence of the word connected. Every moment and memory of their childhood was overflowed with snapshots of the twins.

Of course, one day that ended. It wasn't truthfully expected.

The Puckett sister's dad had recently abandoned their mom, and Pam was closed in a cave of solitude and self-pity. Most people would assume that this startling separation would only fortify the sibling relationship. But then again most people also believe that Sam was never really a strong person.

Melanie was resentful, to say the least. Mad at her dad who had left, her mom who had dissipated, her teachers for the added stress of homework, herself for feeling so awful, and ultimately her sister for not being able to stop it.

Like most Pucketts, she escaped. Not in the conventional way, which was a mixture of alcohol and strobe lights. But in the way she thought most freeing. By way of a plane seat.

Sam was shocked. And the once vivacious hurricane was muted. Later on it would develop again, but for now it was dead.

Sam never cried. Not at the airport, or when Melanie's bed was bombarded by cardboard, or when her mother attempted to persuade endearment out of a measly shoulder-touch. No tears.

Instead, angst piled up inside her core. It built like the floors of a skyscraper. Towering over every other feeling. Spewing on everyone, mainly me.

That is until a single phone call rang. It was of course, Melanie. Let me be clear, It wasn't like they hadn't conversed before, but it was never about their lives. Only on superficial topics.

"Hey" Melanie, age 17, said

"What?" Sam asked, as if she predicted this confrontation, and was waiting for it to finally assemble.

"I have to tell you something,...but I don't know how." Melanie whispered back nervous.

"Say it." Sam replied firmly, always the rock.

"I-I'm not alone" She said, weakly.

Sam was a smart-Alic. She had felt the change in every corner of Melanie's existence.

"I thought I felt fuller" Sam said, with a small chuckle.

"I'm pregnant." Melanie flat lined. It was set.

The scene, the lights. Everything was playing out and to her, the world span. Whilst to Sam, the play was paused. As if the entire universe specifically allotted a time when Sam could burst her true colors. She was allowed to cry, and scream, and become a human persona of intense feeling. In fact, Melanie intended to hear a string of curse words. Because, that was Sam, passion. However, as one of the rare times in her life, Sam was completely silent. I guess she was trying to become comfortable with Melanie's words, or maybe was giving Melanie space to hear them herself.

"Does mom know?" Was all Sam asked.

"Yes, I left a voice mail. She hasn't responded."

"You know, I'm supposed to be the reckless one." Sam said, sarcastic as ever.

"He said he loved me." Melanie uttered, feeling a cork generate in her throat and tears seethe through her ducts.

"They always do. You know that." She responded, referring to the floozy woman who had "raised" them.

"Are you mad?" Melanie asked. Almost exhausted with this revelation. She knew before calling. However now, she felt as if her stomach would swallow her body and her world with it.

"A little. But, I'm here." Sam said, beginning to sense the trade of loving phrases.

"Thanks...sis."

Sam was of course strong. Maybe, she was secretly crying on the inside from this life-changing event. But she was there, among everyone else.

**Please review and thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

I've been so blind.

How, how did this happen?

It was so obvious, and I wasn't able to see.

Sam's eyes lit up the world like lightning bolts. Almost naked to the human eye, but once sighted there was no denying. She loved him. And I, Melanie,was unable to notice. Now, though...wow. It was like they were specifically characterized, and every precious moment or passing glance was narrated, to climax into this powerful relationship.

Sam had always been one to show her feelings, except for when it came to endearment. She would evade any signal of care, even to me. Except, usually i could feel it. Call it what you want, a twin thing, insight, whatever, but this time. This only time, I was obstructed from revealing her true feelings.

Now it hits me.

See, Sam, Carly, Freddie, and I were all at their hang-out the Groovy Smoothies. Last year, I had only heard of Freddie, until finally meeting him. But he strangely believed that it was really Sam attempting to trick him, I don't blame him, she has a reputation. Trust me, I tried to reveal the truth over and over, but I guess Freddie is just as stubborn as my sister. For even after a surprise kiss, he denied my existence.

Thinking back now, I really should have realized what was happening.

"You swore we'd never do that again" Freddie had whispered to me.

Again? Is this true. They had kissed.

Now, we were just casually conversing. Until a strange man came by trying to sell his stick-food. As if completely normal, Sam and her friends just shrugged him off without a second thought. I of course, was a little...weirded out by this. Anyways, then it happened.

Freddie had uttered a simple joke. And in a nanosecond I saw Carly laughing away, jubilantly. Her hand was perched on Freddie's shoulder as if to balance herself. Freddie hadn't really noticed, he was to busy chuckling at his pun. All the while looking at Sam.

There. Sam was laughing. So happily, that unless you knew her in every corner, you wouldn't have guess how buoyant she felt. But she was, so, so happy. And in the flick of a finger she paused and stared at Freddie's brilliant smile.

Her eyes were ignited, ever so slightly. But I could tell. She was in love.

Later on at our house I asked. We've always had this relationship, where the conversation is brought up, and immediately we understand the topic.

"So how long?" I asked curiously, trying to hide my inner joy.

"What?" She asked, embarrassed?

"Come one, I have eyes, don't I?"

"I...it just happened." She said, coming to terms with her secret.

"Well I think it's sweet." I said, almost teasingly.

"You think everything's sweet." She responded, with a bite.

"Are you going to ask him?" I chided

"Ha, funny...It'll never happen." She said

"Why?"

Sam never explained. She just walked away, not sadly, just did. As if she had already accepted this fate, and even a tough force like her wrestling with it would produce no different outcome.

My sister and I are different in a number of ways. I chase love, I am a hopeless romantic. Any singe of a spark and I fall. I keep it like a teeter-totter. If it fails I'll simply bounce up and stay until another person comes to make me waver.

While Sam, is perched on a cliff. One step backwards and she'll always be safe, nothing to remove that security. But coerced forwards and she tumbles in a instant to an unsuspecting doom. She falls and never returns.

Sad,really.

I don't know if she's realized, but Sam is stuck on the ground. Staring at what could have been. Up above her.

**Please review and thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi! Sorry for the corny ending, but I had no clue how to finish this one shot. Thanks for reading! **

"Hey" Melanie said through the receiver

Her breaths started repeating in unequal, loud huffs. As if she had just ran a marathon.

"What?" I answered, letting my boredom seep through.

Usually when Melanie called she incessantly rambled about some pointless teenage drama. An annoying mixture of words like, homework, boyfriend, and fat. And by the time she would pause, I would already be drowning in an endless tunnel of pure disinterest. However, this time it seemed something had change. For some reason I felt an oncoming bomb of eventful news. And from this feeling birthed a wave nausea. What is going on? And more importantly, do i want to know?

Melanie never gave me any time to deliberate. For immediately after regulating her breaths, she let the lightning strike.

"Okay," she whispered, more to herself then me, "okay, okay, okay..." she said in a mantra

"Melanie!" I screamed, becoming even more infuriated with her stalling.

On it's own accord the nausea had begun growing, in an almost suffocating bubble. I felt the world spinning, and wished this discomfort would disappear, now.

"I found dad!" She, unintentionally, yelled.

And like that, in Boston, my twin broke down. A flood of tears came from her eyes, accompanied by gusts of sniffles. And although she was speaking, the blubbers from her throat were making every word sound foreign. It was listening to a person who had accidentally bit their tongue off. You want to understand, but your mind is so distracted by this scene, everything is muffled and disoriented.

Suddenly, from the top of the stirs shouted my drunken mother.

"Sam!" she belched, like a baby.

"Sam!"

From lack of response, she directly attempted to stomp down the stairs. Let me point out attempt, for in a matter of seconds my mothers huge butt was flying. Wit a resounding thud, she looked up, angrily and stared.

"Why don't you answer me!"

I was still frozen from shock. Unable to even utter a simple word. Finally, my awe dispelled.

"Mom" I said quietly

"You know you have no respect for me! I feed you I bathe you..." She began her string of stupid complaints

"MOM!" I shouted

Meanwhile on the other line, still weeping dramatic as ever, Melanie had her ear pressed against the phone. Trying to understand the conversation in process.

"Mel,..." I said, now in deep breaths as well. "she,"

Then I really looked at my mom. Who knows how old, and drunk like an old fashioned pirate. But still gleaming in her baby blue eyes, was the slimmer of innocence. That even after being betrayed by her family and husband, never completely died.

"she found dad." I said.

My mom took one gasp. No crying, after all she is a Puckett (save for Melanie we tend to not weep.) Stood up, still tipsy, and ascended the stairs. In the midst of her exit she irritably muttered.

"Bastard."

I looked down, remembering the phone.

"Mel?" I asked, hoping I wouldn't have to explain and make sense of the recent response.

"I heard she said."

We paused, no words. We stood their, ears pressed to our phones, listening intently to the deep breaths of the other twin.

"She'll be okay." I said, as close to compassionate as possible.

After another pause she asked,

"Will you?" innocently as ever.

"I don't know" I said honestly.

"I'll be there tomorrow" She said, referring to her return home.

" 'Kay, be safe" I said, gently.

"Goodnight, sis." She said, probably smiling with small tears in her eyes. Such a dramatic person. Always making every second a movie moment.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." I replied, sincerely content with her care and obsession with making small memories.

I hung up the phone. For, what felt like years, I stared at it. Replaying every word and syllable in my head like a running track.

We have found my dad.

We.

Melanie and I.

**Please review and thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi, i don't know if I really like this ending, I might change it, but enjoy!**

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Melanie and Sam sat on opposite sides. Melanie, as always, was crying rapids of salty tears and sniffling furiously. Sam sat quietly. Her eyes were glossed with a hazy film, making the seconds which ticked endlessly seem distant and muffled. Beep.

It was the middle of the night, or more or less, morning...3:00 am. Melanie was asleep. While Sam was participating in the usual affairs. Which included gobbling up buffet sized chip bags and mindlessly staring at the colorful tv screen. Suddenly a strident ring screamed from the depths of a beer can pile. In a moment's notice Melanie was at the phone's beckoning.

"Hello?" Melanie had assumed it was her mom, call from the lawn of whoever's "bachelor pad."

"Jim Puckett?" there "father's" name, which in the past was labeled as an emergency contact, ironically contacting him was the most trivial act for anyone.

"No, this Melanie, may I ask who's speaking?" She asked, hiding all hints of worry under instinctual polite.

"This is Nurse Evangeline at Mercy Hospital, we have a Pamela Puckett here." she said, almost cheerfully?

Melanie gasped and quickly replied with a "I'll be right there!" before hanging up. She rapidly turned around to her sister, dozing in the recliner,  
>"Sam!" she screamed "Mom's in the hospital!"<p>

Sam's concentration was busted and in what felt like nonseconds Melanie was thrusting jackets on her shoulders and forcing the car's rusty pedal to connect with the dirty carpeting. Melanie, had taken every phone call from a doctor as a life or death, emergency cry. Sam, however, had been through nights like these.

Occasionally in the midst of her blunders, Pam had broken a bone or suffered a slight concussion, so this process was nothing short of familiar to Sam.

Finally they stepped inside the hospital. Meeted with shiny, crest white tiles and warning signs. One whiff of the lemony floor cleaner sent painful stars to Sam's head.

"Pamela Puckett!" Melanie shouted to the receptionist, frightening the red-haired intern behind the front desk, who was attempting sleep after working a late shift the previous night.

"Room 203!" She said, cowardly. Hiding behind a clipboard.

Now they were there.

Confused on this scene, even after a in depth explanation of alcohol poisoning and a car accident. There she lay. Beep.

Pam, of all cliches, looked fragile. More so then on a daily basis. Beep.

"Sam?" Melanie hoarsely whispered

"She'll be fine" Sam answered, almost automatically, still staring absently at nothing. For years that had been the reassuring mantra whenever trouble rose with their mother. Beep.

"We should have taken care of her" Melanie sullenly said, blubberishly.

Sam snapped. haze dispelled from her vision.

"We?...I do, Melanie" She said firmly with every sense of the word venom

Soon that venom had switched Melanie from weeping tragedy to angry, defensive debater.

"What's that supposed to mean!"

And so the fight, that had been bubbling up ensued

"I DO TAKE CARE OF HER,..MELANIE!" Beep.

"And what I don't!" Beep.

"That's not what I said." Sam answered, growing aggravated.

"But it's what you meant! You know, if you didn't cause her all this stress with your arrests she wouldn't have gotten drunk!" Melanie accused.

"So it's my fault! Well, if you didn't leave and made her even more lonely she wouldn't have gotten into that car with some random guy!"

"You're supposed to keep her company and take care of her while I'm gone!"

"THAT'S NOT MY JOB,...BITCH!" For the record Sam never cursed at Melanie, ever.

"Well it can't be mine when I'm trying to make a better future for all of us!"

"Oh is that what you think you're doing?" Sam laughed sarcastically.

"IT IS!" Melanie said, veins straining against her neck. Beep.

"Not when,our money is spent on you and we have none to supply ourselves, for our future!" Beep.

"Well if you kept better watch of her she wouldn't have spent the rest on booze!"

Now both twins were less then a foot apart. Glaring fire into the other's eyes. While Pam laid in between unconscious to the world, like always.

Suddenly, a loud constant tone shattered their fight. Pam died.

"Mom!" Melanie yelped, running to the lifeless head. Shaking her shoulders as if to stir her awake. "Mom!, Mom!..." she chanted petrified.

Sam paused for a brief moment at the tone and as if they had switched places fell to the floor in a tsunami of fresh tears.

Soon Melanie's weepshad returned. "Mom?" she whispered, coming to terms with the truth.

Still bawling, Melanie went towards her sister, who was drowning in tears that had yearned to fall for years now. She sat down beside her. Simultaneously they both hugged each other, while listening to the moans of the now dead heart monitor.

"S-S-She'll be fine" Sam uttered desperately.

"I-I know." Melanie said.

**Please review and thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Once again sorry for the bad ending, they are really just not my strong suit. I hope you like it otherwise! Thanks for reading!**

It's the finale. To your surprise every breath exhaled is puffing in uneven beats from your chest, your hands are beginning to sweat, and your eyes bounce around the scene like a madman, adrenaline and excitement races through your veins.

Then finally, you hear the drum roll pound, and for that small moment you close your eyes. Eyes that had been touched and prodded at for the entire day. Eyes that observed every twirl and curtsey performed. Soon, with your eyes still closed, the sound of applause mimics crashing ocean waves. And like a angelic choir, the very words you have been yearning for are announced.

"Melanie Puckett!" the host screams.

You jump, fist pumping your way to the podium, smiling like the barbie dolls you have always despised. The 2 pound "metal" figurine is placed into your tiny hands and a silky banner is adorned around your glittery torso. After dawning a smile towards the audience you turn to the side stage. Standing behind the diamond-blue curtain is your twin, your sister. She looks pretty pathetic in a muddy hoodie and cargo pants, the right of her body is dependably tilting on a crutch, but she smiles just as proudly as you do.

At first this "small" favor was ludicrous, but winning was too important for her. So she pleaded, and pleaded, and ultimately you obliged. The judges had regulations against handicapped contestants, and their eyes stretched to the size of meatballs in shock at the miraculous recovery.

"A-a-alright then?" The head permitted, confusion making him wonder if he was still drunk from the night before.

Soon, you were decoupaged with rhinestones, hairspray, lipstick, and tooled fabric. Your hair had been teased to the next universe and your toenails lacquered with a shimmery pink. Usually this daffodil-like activity would suffocate you. However, the plentiful attention hypnotized you into a technicolor dream, making every thing seem new and exhilarating.

"You'll do great." Melanie said, brimming with joy.

"Yeah, yeah" you replied, as always nonchalant.

Then it's the talent segment. Luckily enough you had joined in on Melanie's dance sessions, and became friends with the choreography teacher as well. Staying later then usual so he can teach you both moves, ones you could incorporate into fighting. The routine was effortlessly replaying in your mind, and you felt your body coincide with the memorized sequence. Melanie's shoes pitter-pattered like rain on the floor, creating this rejuvenating rush in your soul.

Suddenly, your foot missed a beat, scraping across the floor accidentally, and sending you too the ground. For an entire moment, you felt the talons of defeat suck every ounce of confidence from you body. Anger strikes, and as much as you want to fight, the boulder of dissapointment is crushing you like the endless single syllable word emitting from the crowd. "Awe" they all moan in unison. You feel their pity and you hate it.

You want it to stop. Because it itches your skin and makes your spine instinctively cringe. No, you mutter in your mind. Standing, like a great warrior and continuing the dance, as if there was never a pause. In the distance blares the cheers of your sister, screaming like you, at the top if her lungs. A smile forms onto your cheeks, inspiring every pair of eyes to do the same.

Once the music resounds you hastily step out of the spotlight. The error of your moves dawning on you and making you worried for the final outcome of the blunder. However, clapping along to your footsteps is the rumble of the congregation's encouragement.

During the interrogation, the toupee wearing man eyes you with a cheesy smile. He pauses at your unconventional retorts and briefly questions the seriousness of your answers. Slightly annoyed that this is his "impressive" day job, he ignores your response and continues to the next "little darling contestant.

"Melanie Puckett!"

You were crowned, rewarded first place.

Upon reaching Melanie you hand her the sparkly tiara, slightly jealous that she gets your prize.

"Keep it" she says, knowing exactly how much you wanted it.

This experience had made you swoon at the limelight. Samantha Puckett is the real winner. And next time it you want your name to be honored with confetti. So you go home and begin training, all the while Melanie watches, cheering you on with more happiness then if she had actually won.

**Please review and thanks for reading!**


End file.
